Is there an Assyrian ‘Susan Boyle’ Amongst us?
By now, and unless you live in a cave with a complete isolation from the rest of the world, you have most likely heard of Susan Boyle. She is the British Idol show sensation who wowed the crowd, despite being laughed at and ridiculed before she even started her performance. Ever since, Susan Boyle has been the talk of the media and the web, with her performance clip on Youtube being watched over 100 million times in a matter of ten days or so. Astronomical numbers in any way you look at it.
But why and how did Susan create such a buzz? Is it her great voice? While that has a lot to do with it, it is more about the expectations people had of her, given her looks and age. It is a perfect and classic illustration of “judging a book by its cover and not necessarily by what is in it.”
Do Assyrians have a Susan Boyle amongst them? Or maybe more than one Susan Boyle, and this includes from both genders. You bet we do. The Assyrian Susan Boyle is that person in our Assyrian society whom we dismiss and not give a chance to show us what they have got. Whether it is a talent, a skill, an idea, we are sometimes too quick to dismiss people in our society based on their looks or appearance only. We don’t even give them a chance to show what they have, and discharge them before they have even had a chance to impress us.
How many times have you seen an Assyrian with a good idea or a plan, only to be laughed at or even ridiculed? And this is even before we have had a chance to hear or see what this ‘Assyrian Susan Boyle’ has to offer. We may judge the person based solely on their appearance, looks, background or even tribal affiliation. If he is not from my tribe, I am not giving him a chance. Sounds familiar, doesn’t it? This also applies to our presense in Iraq: just because we are a minority and Christian, doesn’t mean we should be dismissed and marginalized. Give Assyrians of Iraq a chance too!
If Susan Boyle has taught us anything, it is that a person should be given at least one chance, and you never know what could happen in that one chance. A person could fail his chance, or could really impress us. We are not even asking for many chances: let us give those in our nation just one chance to show us what they got. We never know, they may impress us after all. This includes any and all segments of our society, be it political, social, music, business, entrepreneurship and other areas. If we just give a person one chance, you never know what will come out of it. They may just need that one chance and support from us, and the rest will just grow beyond expectation and imagination. Isn’t that what happened with Susan Boyle?
Finally, and to all the Assyrian ‘Simon Cowells’ amongst us, be a little more open and fair in your judgment. Give a chance to a person, and don’t ridicule them before you have even had a chance to see what they have to show. By doing this, you will have saved yourself any future mockery. Next time an Assyrian comes to you with an idea, listen to them and give them a chance. Otherwise, and with no ideas to build from and on, our nation will have no future artists, businesses, entrepreneurs, singers, politicians, scientists, infrastructure. Or we may still have them, but they will not be working under an Assyrian name, because their own Assyrians didn’t give them a chance to begin with.
I agree, what u said is sooooo true.
“Or we may still have them, but they will not be working under an Assyrian name, because their own Assyrians didn’t give them a chance to begin with”.
So true; a living example is the
International Tennis Champion and I will say no more.
Thanks.